I loved everything about the chaos that Ana who's seemingly so organized with her lists created throughout this whole book only to find that sometimes you have to throw the list and your expectations out the window (or burn them in your kitchen sink) to find happiness. Gia was a lot and reminded me of one of my oldest friends so I could understand Ana wanting to be in her life but good luck to Matt is all I could keep thinking. This story was well rounded and I loved Ana's idea for her own show and how Richard was involved with it to wrap things up perfectly.

✨New Release✨

Another great debut novel!! These authors really know what us romance readers want!

All the characters are messy and funny, and had me swooning in different ways. I couldn’t put this one down, and just needed to know who Ana was going to end up with! I laughed out loud quite a few times 😆

Thank you to #netgalley for another opportunity to read a brand new release!

Liked the premise but it felt YA at times. Also, wanted more Cuban American culture as it is talked about only once in the story. I felt main character was immature at times.

This was a really fun book! I have not been motivated to read anything recently and this book pulled me out of the little slump I was in. This book was an extremely quick and easy read.

This book is, above all things, very funny. Ana is a woman in her thirties who feels like nothing is really working out the way she wants. She is not appreciated at her job, she has a rocky relationship with her step-mom, and most importantly, she feels like she is never going to find a man who meets her expectations. Ana's resolution? Date multiple men, each one with a characteristic that she is looking for. In this book, we get to watch Ana struggle to juggle her many men, her job, and her friendship with her best friend.

Many thanks to you Forever Publishing, Netgalley, and the author for this ARC!!

Ana Karina works as a producer for a marriage proposal reality show. She has produced eight seasons, but Ana’s life isn’t like the show she produces. She’s a single girl in New York City who hasn’t met her Mr. Right or Right Now. Ana rarely rarely takes risks, but she stages risky situations for unforgettable wedding proposals on her tv show. And she lives her life based on a series of lists.

Her perfect man list has been around almost a decade, since a bad breakup in college. Every time she comes across a man with an annoying habit… she adds that to her list of things she doesn’t want in a man.
When her stepsister and her best friend begin celebrating their weddings, she starts to reevaluate her lists. Ana decides to throw caution to the wind and say yes to dates with men (whether or not they’re going to be the one).

So, who is the right man for Ana?

Ana Takes Manhattan is a delightful journey of dating and self-discovery. This is a quirky romcom with a Cuban American representation. While a little predictable, I enjoyed this book. It reminded me a of What’s Your Number. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys romcoms.

Thank you Forever and Netgalley for the ARC of Ana Takes Manhattan by Lissette Decos.

So cute! Loved it! Ana Karina dreams up over the top marriage proposals for the reality TV shoe she produces. When one bride doesn’t say “yes” to the perfect proposal, it sends Ana down a different path professionally and personally.
She decides to start living with no regrets. She’s going to start living life with no regrets and go out with guys who don’t check the boxes on her list. Some really bad dates, funny banter and a precious story make up this book that would be a really great movie. Thank you Net Galley!

Ana Karina is a reality TV producer who loves her job and arranges marriage proposals. Part of her job is to cut, copy and paste scenes to make it better for TV viewership. However, Ana’s love life isn’t as simple and she can’t edit those out. To make things difficult, Ana has a list of things her Mr. Right shouldn’t have and decides to date four different men each embodying one list item to find her Mr. Right.

I feel like this is going to be a hit or miss story with many readers. Personally, I didn’t like Ana after one third of the book and I absolutely didn’t like her best friend Gia. Ana was a likable character in the beginning but later on, I felt she was more immature and judgemental, although she did learn something from each relationship. Also to me, Gia was not a supportive friendship. Maybe it was because Gia was getting married or they had some unresolved bad blood, but some of the things Gia said and did didn’t sit well with me.

The writing is simple yet sometimes vague making this a quick read if one is interested in the story. It has funny dialogues and instances which makes it somewhat entertaining. The romantic chemistry is lacking likely because there are too many men causing multiple subplots. Also, I couldn’t connect with any of the characters mainly because of their choices and spoken words.

Overall, this was an okay read for me. This isn’t a romance focused book but a story focused on Ana’s journey to finding her Mr. Right while trying to grow as an individual. There is a lot going on with Ana dating, with her job, with her family and with her friend, which ultimately ends very abruptly.

I have to say that this was a book I had to push myself to stick with but I'm glad I did. You see, I didn't care for the main character, Ana....at all initially. But as the book progressed, I'm happy to say, so did Ana.

In the beginning, it seemed that Ana was frozen in time from a maturity level standpoint and really didn't get "real life." Everything seemed like a "production" to her. So, I guess it made sense that she made her living working on reality television. Unfortunately, when you expect real life to be like television, it's always going to fall short. Through her experiences in this book, Ana learns and grows. Eventually she discovers that the things you thought you had absolutely no interest in might just be what you actually wanted all along.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to read and review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

Ana Takes Manhattan is a cute rom com read. Ana works on producing a reality television show about marriage proposals, yet she’s been having trouble finding her own love of her life. She’s obsessed with making lists and comes across one she wrote with her best friend Gia of the four things she needs to have in her dream man. The growth Ana goes through while trying to be spontaneous is at times a bit unbelievable, and while I found the last 25% to be a bit rushed, I did enjoy the overall story.

Thank you to Netgalley and Forever Publishing for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest opinion.

3.5-
This is a cute romcom about a girl who’s looking for love in all the wrong places. Ana is a 32 year old TV producer in Manhattan working on a show about proposals and her best friend is getting married. She has a crush on a guy who doesn’t know she exists and her bestie and her soon to be husband are trying to set her up with a well known artist who is 30 years her senior. One day when she’s back in her childhood house she finds a list of the 4 qualities her perfect man will have and she decides to date 4 men, all of whom have one of those qualities.
The book reads like your standard chick lit and is a bit predictable because of it. Some of the predicaments Ana finds herself in are quite humorous, while others are a little cringy, but ultimately she finds her way.
While I enjoyed the bulk of the book I felt like the ending could have used an epilogue just so we could have seen real growth in Ana. I felt like she didn’t grow enough as a person for the length of time the book covered. While there were a couple of parts in which Ana faced a hardship they both felt forced and the resolution felt too easy. However, Ana is a very likable character and I found myself cheering for her all along.
Lissette Decos is a reality tv producer and I loved how she used her personal life in her debut novel. I am definitely interested in seeing what other books Ms. Decos has in her. This hit shelves on Feb 28 and I thank Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and NetGalley for an advanced copy.

Fun story about someone who is finally giving themselves the credit they deserve and not taking anyones bs.
Ana was so relatable and loved the trope of the person for you being right under your nose

I have taken a while to review this book because I didn't want just to write the first thing I thought. So Ana the main character is a bit flighty when trying to find a new man. She has a list of four things she wants to meet. She finds four different guys with each a quality. So this was fun to read.
Her best friend and Ana don't seem to have a healthy friendship. I find this the most challenging and believable relationship in the book. Immaturity is all throughout this book as well

On a positive note for a women's romance, it sure did have some funny parts. I will not give away the ending. I will say I read this book but, I've heard listening is much better


ARC provided by NetGalley and the author for an honest review.

TW: cheating and implied cheating

The synopsis of this book caught my eye and I was excited to read it, unfortunately this one didn’t work for me. The heroine wasn’t a likeable character, the “romance” took way too long to come about, and while I appreciate a good list I’m truly surprised she didn’t have a list on the proper way to go to use the bathroom. She drove me absolutely nuts and when I can’t connect to a character in a book, that’s not a good thing.

Ana is a reality TV producer of an over the top marriage proposal show. When her latest proposal goes awry she loses her favorite editor to another producer who seems to be in favor with the network manager and her new editor is a man who thinks what Ana’s show does is ridiculous. On top of that her best friend is getting married and Ana worries that her friend’s cousins aren’t stepping up with the wedding planning, but she’s on top of it with her millions of lists.

Ana wants to find a man, and remembering the list she made of her perfect man in college she realizes that she knows four men who satisfy each of the four characteristics she wants in a man so she decides to date all four at the same time. She does learn from this experience, more what she doesn’t want in a relationship but honestly I just didn’t find this all that interesting. It was like she was going through the motions when she knew none of these men were right for her, so why bother? All the while there was a man waiting to figure out what she did want out of a relationship.

This book was too busy and had no focus and therefore I slogged through it, it took me days to read when I normally finish a book a day but I just couldn’t make myself keep reading it at times. While I do think some might find what Ana does for a living interesting and they might even enjoy her dating misadventures for me it was tiring and not all that interesting.

I was expecting this to be a fun, empowering romance about a career-focused woman trying to succeed at life and love in the city - one of my favourite story types. And at first, this book seemed to be just that. I loved the beginning of it, getting introduced to Ana, her TV production job that she’s great at, and her family, and I really enjoyed Ana’s habit of making lists to help her make sense of different things in her life.

But the core plot point in the story is Ana’s decision to date multiple guys to fulfill her different relationship needs, and unfortunately, things went off the rails pretty quickly for me once Ana began dating different people. None of the men in her life felt like real people - they were all caricatures of stereotypes (e.g. the emotional artist), very over the top in their one defining personality trait. The book almost felt like a fever dream at times, with how oddly things developed.

I also didn’t understand Ana’s relationship with her best friend, which seemed extremely one-sided and kind of toxic, and I never bought into the apparent romantic connection with the guy that Ana ultimately ended up with.

Because I’m big on the character element of stories, these issues made it difficult for me to really get invested in Ana’s journey.

This book started out so funny, quick witted, and genuinely charming but towards the middle it sort of dropped off a bit. I really enjoyed Ana's character when she was happy go lucky but after finding a list from years past of traits her perfect man would have, she decides to find 4 different men instead of 1 man with all 4 traits....? The men she picked all had serious red flags, all while the man for her was right under her nose. I think a lot of times it's difficult for me, personally, to connect with impulsive characters. I mean, really, think about this for a second. I loved that Ana was professional and towards the end she seemed to be branching out to further her career that she loved. Overall this was a fun debut and I'd be interested in another book by this author!

Read this book if you like: Multicultural representation (Cuban American), lists, reality shows

I wanted to love this. The cover is gorgeous. I expected this to be more romance, but it's Women's fiction. There was romance but it took a backseat to Ana growing. It wasn't bad but it fell flat for me. There were funny parts. The characters were well-developed but a few of them seemed very immature for 30's. Some parts really bothered me though I know cheating is a realistic thing. This was not it. You may love this more. I didn't connect.

Thank you to the author and Forever Books for the gifted book ❤️

This book just didn't do it for me. It took me forever to get into it. It didn't flow and it didn't hook me. I wasn't rooting for anyone and everyone annoyed me.

3 ⭐️

Ana Takes Manhattan has an exciting synopsis and cute cover but unfortunately I didn't love it. Ana's character was quirky but sometimes unlikable. The storyline was fun but not super well executed, and it lacked heavy romance since it was a slower build up to the final relationship. All the side characters were not overly likable either, but it was cool seeing details of Ana's job. This categorizes more like a women's fiction instead of a romance. I'd recommend for some readers, but is not a must-have!

Review 3.5⭐️
I was really looking forward to this but just had a hard time connecting with any of the characters. Mostly because no one is really likeable. Ana loves to makes lists, so it's no surprise she has a list for her Mr. Right. However, I don't understand why she took each bullet point from this list and found different guys that only fit one point. Therefore, making up her Mr. Right. I also didn't agree with her seeing multiple men, but she didn't tell them that's what she was doing. Ana's best friend, Gia, was just the worst. She was self-centered and manipulated Ana into apologizing for something when they were both in the wrong. As far as for the romance, I wish it would have developed sooner. I knew which guy she would end up with fairly quickly but it didn't happen until almost the very end. I really enjoyed the behind the scenes of Ana as a reality show producer. It was cool to see how everything worked and came together. Overall, it had some strong points but its characters brought it down for me. I would recommend this is you prefer women's fiction where romance takes the back seat.

Ana Takes Manhattan by Lissette Decos is a fun and charming novel that follows the adventures of Ana, a young woman from Cuba who moves to New York City to pursue her dreams. The story is full of humor, heart, and cultural insights, as Ana navigates the challenges of adjusting to life in the big city. Decos' writing style is engaging and lively, with vivid descriptions of the sights and sounds of New York City. The characters are likable and relatable, and the relationships between them are well-developed and believable. The themes of self-discovery, friendship, and cultural identity are woven seamlessly into the plot, making this a book that is both entertaining and thought-provoking. Overall, Ana Takes Manhattan is a delightful read that will leave you feeling inspired and uplifted.